"Maybe I should have reacted straight away when Yates attacked" - Thibaut Pinot shows his best legs on brutal Romandie mountains

Thibaut Pinot has been up and down over the last few years, but this afternoon at the Tour de Romandie he's definitely had one of his strongest performances. With the Giro d'Italia close to starting, the Frenchman has come very close to the win on the queen stage of the Suisse race.

"It feels a lot of good, especially since I had a lot of doubts in recent days," Pinot said in a post-race interview. The Groupama-FDJ rider, who is set to retire from pro cycling this year, has had great results throughout the 2010's but has struggled to find his own during the last few years as a new generation emerged with higher climbing capacity. Many of those names were absent from Romandie however, and with more traditional offensive racing in the ascent to Thyon 2000 today, the conditions were perfect for him.

"I let it go at first, I played dead a bit as they say, but maybe I should have reacted straight away when Yates attacked," the Frenchman explained. In the rainy conditions Pinot was on a strong day, starting the stage also in 16th place. He surged to fifth in the GC as he soared up the 21-kilometer climb, riding at his own pace in the GC group upon some of the accelerations, including when Adam Yates moved to victory.

Having better legs he attacked from the chasing group in the final two kilometers, going clear and close to Adam Yates. It was an agonizing few minutes for Pinot who was close to successfully bridging across, but he needed just a few more seconds. He ended up finishing second, a very strong performance but one that did not earn a win for the 32-year old. "I'm not missing much, it's a shame, but I'm still happy to be second. I'm really where I wanted to be, so I'm happy," he concluded.